The ByteByte team formed within the USC Games program, the #1 ranked game design school in North America for 9 of the past 10 years. Under the guidance of games industry veterans that held c-suite or senior positions at Tencent, EA, Zynga, Microsoft, and their own studios, ByteByte devoted development on Umami Blast as a learning opportunity to execute best practices in developing a mobile GaaS experience.

Held to high expectations by being USC Games’ first sponsored game project and promising to release by end of development, the ByteByte team embraces challenge, creative problem solving, and positive team culture.

Zynga began looking for games to sponsor within USC Games during the Spring 2018 semester. After an intensive pitch process, Umami Blast was the single game out of 40 submissions to be both an AGP (Advanced Game Project) and receive sponsorship from Zynga. The partnership involves support from the Zynga studio, as well as close mentorship from Zynga staff all the way up to the c-suite staff.

Recognized as one of the top game design programs in North America by the Princeton Review, USC Games represents an exciting collaboration between the School of Cinematic Arts’ Interactive Media & Games Division and the Viterbi School of Engineering’s Department of Computer Science. The culmination of the courses leads to the Advanced Game Project which is designed to be a real life representation of working in a studio. From pitching, development, to team dynamics and managing senior administration's expectations, AGP is a masterclass in game development.